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Edward Dowden
Edward Dowden (3 May 1843 - 4 April 1913), was an Irish poet and literary critic. Life Dowden was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John (who became Bishop of Edinburgh in 1886). Edward's literary tastes emerged early, in a series of essays written at the age of twelve. His home education continued at Queen's College, Cork and at Trinity College, Dublin; at the latter he had a distinguished career, becoming president of the Philosophical Society, and winning the vice-chancellor's prize for English verse and prose, and the first senior moderatorship in ethics and logic. In 1867 he was elected professor of oratory and English literature at Dublin University. His devotion to Goethe led to his succeeding Max Müller in 1888 as president of the English Goethe Society. In 1889 he gave the first annual Taylorian Lecture at the University of Oxford, and from 1892 to 1896 served as Clark lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge. To his research are due, among other matters of literary interest, the first account of Thomas Carlyle's Lectures on periods of European culture; the identification of Shelley as the author of a review (in The Critical Review of December 1814) of a lost romance by James Hogg; a description of Shelley's Philosophical View of Reform; a manuscript diary of Fabre d'Églantine; and a record by Dr Wilhelm Weissenborn of Goethe's last days and death. He also discovered a Narrative of a Prisoner of War under Napoleon (published in Blackwood's Magazine), an unknown pamphlet by Bishop Berkeley, some unpublished writings of William Hayley relating to Cowper, and a unique copy of the Tales of Terror. As commissioner of education in Ireland (1896–1901), trustee of the National Library of Ireland, secretary of the Irish Liberal Union and vice-president of the Irish Unionist Alliance, he enforced his view that literature should not be divorced from practical life. Dowden married twice, first (1866) Mary Clerke, and secondly (1895) Elizabeth Dickinson West, daughter of the dean of St Patrick's. His daughter, Hester Dowden, was a well-known spiritualist medium. Writing Dowden's first book, Shakespeare, his Mind and Art (1875), resulted from a revision of a course of lectures, and made him widely known as a critic: translations appeared in German and Russian; his Poems (1876) went into a second edition. His Shakespeare Primer (1877) was translated into Italian and German. Later works by Dowden on Shakespeare included: Shakespeare's Sonnets (1881), Passionate Pilgrim (1883), Introduction to Shakespeare (1893), Hamlet (1899), Romeo and Juliet (1900), Cymbeline (1903), and his article (in the National Review, July 1902) on "Shakespeare as a Man of Science", criticizing T.E. Webb's Mystery of William Shakespeare. His critical essays "Studies in Literature" (1878), "Transcripts and Studies" (1888), "New Studies in Literature" (1895) showed a profound knowledge of the currents and tendencies of thought in various ages and countries; but his Life of Shelley (1886) made him best known to the public at large. In 1900 he edited an edition of Shelley's works. Other books by him which indicate his interests in literature include: Robert Southey (in the "English Men of Letters" series, 1880), his edition of Southey's Correspondence with Caroline Bowles (1881), and Select Poems of Southey (1895); his Correspondence of Sir Henry Taylor (1888); his edition of Wordsworth's Poetical Works (1892) and of his Lyrical Ballads (1890); his French Revolution and English Literature (1897; lectures given at Princeton University in 1896), History of French Literature (1897), Puritan and Anglican (1900), Robert Browning (1904) and Michel de Montaigne (1905). Dowden's wide interests and scholarly methods made his influence on criticism both sound and stimulating, and his own ideals are well described in his essay on The Interpretation of Literature in his Transcripts and Studies. Recognition In 1878 the Royal Irish Academy awarded him the Cunningham gold medal "for his literary writings, especially in the field of Shakespearian criticism." In popular culture His biographical/critical concepts, particularly in connection with Shakespeare, are played with by Stephen Dedalus in the library chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses. Leslie Fiedler was to play with them again in The Stranger in Shakespeare. Publications Poetry * Poems. London: Henry S. King, 1876.Poems (1876), Internet Archive, Web, July 28, 2012. * A Woman's Reliquary. Churchtown, Dundrum: Cuala Press, 1913. * Poems (edited by Elizabeth Dickinson West Dowden). London, Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1914. Non-fiction * Shakspere: A critical study of his mind and art. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1875. ** reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-108-00076-5 * Studies in Literature: 1789-1877. London: C.K. Paul, 1878. * Southey. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880. * Introduction to Shakespeare. London: Blackie & Son, 1893; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. * A History of French Literature. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1897. * Puritan and Anglican: studies in literature. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1900. * New Studies in Literature. London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1902. * Robert Browning. London: J.M. Dent & Co.; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1904. * Michel de Montaigne. Philadelphia, London: J.B. Lippincott, 1905. * Essays Modern and Elizabethan. London: J.M. Dent, 1910. Edited *Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poetical Works. New York, Boston: T.Y. Crowell & Co., 1893. *William Shakespeare, Cymbeline. London: Methuen, 1903.[Cymbeline (1903), Internet Archive. Web, Aug. 4, 2013. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results=Edward Dowden, WorldCat, Web, July 27, 2012. See also *List of Irish poets *List of literary critics References *William M. Murphy. "Prodigal Father: The life of John Butler Yeats, 1839-1922". Ithaca, NY, & London: Cornell University Press, 1978; paperback edition, 1979; revised paperback edition, Syracuse University Press, 2001.) *William M. Murphy, "Yeats, Quinn, and Edward Dowden," in John Quinn: Selected Irish writers from his library" (edited by Janis & Richard Londraville). Locust Hill Press, 2001. Notes External links ;Poems * "In July" *Dowden in ''A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Renuncints," "Leonardo's 'Monna Lisa'," "Two Infinities" *Dowden in the Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse: "Awakening," "By the Window," "Communion," "New Hymn for Solitude," "The Secret of the Universe," "The Initiation," "Love's Lord." * Edward Dowden at PoemHunter (23 poems). ;Books * ;About * 'Defense of Harriet Shelley '' - comments on Dowden's Life of Shelley by Mark Twain'' ;Etc. * * Original article is at Edward Dowden. Category:1843 births Category:1913 deaths Category:People from County Cork Category:Irish poets Category:People from Cork (city) Category:Former officers of the University Philosophical Society Category:Alumni of Queens College Cork Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Dublin Category:Shakespearean scholars Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Irish literary critics